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Location German-occupied Europe, forced labour Period World War II (1939–1945) |
Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe (German: for 'German Economic Enterprises') abbreviated DWB, was a Nazi German project launched in World War II by the Allgemeine SS to profit from the use of forced and compulsory labour extracted from the Nazi concentration camp inmates.
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Holding company for Nazi German industries
DWB was a holding company for more than 25 SS industries. Oswald Pohl, the head of the SS business department (known by its German initials as WVHA) was also the chief officer of DWB. Georg Lörner, another high WVHA official, was another incorporator. Through stock ownership DWB controlled a wide variety of enterprises, such as stone quarries, brick manufacturing plants, cement mills, pharmaceutical factories, real estate, housing, building materials, book printing and binding, porcelain and ceramics, mineral water and fruit juices, furniture, foodstuffs, and textiles and leather.
Role in war crimes
After World War II. the surviving chief officers of WVHA were placed on trial for crimes against humanity. Most of them were found guilty. Both Oswald Pohl and Georg Lörner were sentenced to death by hanging, although Georg Lörner managed to get his sentence commuted to a prison term. The war crimes tribunal placed particular emphasis on the role the defendants had played in four DWB subsidiaries:
DEST in particular became notorious for exploitation under brutal conditions of the labor of concentration camp inmates at Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.